wadhams

The adaptation is so good that one can read Waugh's novel while watching and practically not miss a word. The lush prose of the novel is there, as well as perfect visual imagery of the settings, absolutely essential to the integrity of the piece.

Alec Guiness is brilliant in the ambiguous heroism of a Scottish colonel, Jock Sinclair, after WWII, where he was cited for high bravery, now at peacetime garrison duty in Scotland. Another colonel, obviously better educated and suited to peacetime duty, is brought in over him -- and he resents it.

He also must balance his daughter's welfare (he's a widower) and his mistress, whom he calls a real soldier's girl, which might not say much for your chastity but a hell of a lot for your heart. The new colonel has his war-caused weaknesses and Sinclair plays on them, leading to the new man's suicide. Guinness then plays the best scene of his life as he becomes mad in imagined elaborate formation, spiced with command orders and "tunes of glory." All the actors are splendid, especially some of the comic enlisted men who further the class divisions among the regiment.